Tracy McGrady and his play at the end of close games...

That last shot was pretty weak but a previous play just boggled my mind. He threw the ball away and didn't even attempt to challenge Marbury's breakaway even though he was well within reach.

 

TMAC IS NOT CLUTCH LIKE KOBE!!!!!

Kobe is on another LEVEL that TMAC is trying to get to....

Tmac is just alil better version of Vince Carter

 

I wouldn't go that far but he needs to turn the intensity up a notch more consistently.

 

I lay the blame at the foot of the coach, JVG.

His arrogance and stupidity reeks. I cannot believe I will be saying all of this to a man I will forever appreciate for moving or shipping out Francis and his max contract. I did not know I would this unhappy with him this quickly.

We lost the last two game because of JVG - he failed to run the team properly and make sure the team followed one of the oldest principles of basketball. Yao was not broken in the last two games but soomehow we managed to get away from him. We built leads and played more efficiently with a deliberate offensive scheme of inside-out tactics. But we went away from this in bith 4th quaters of the Knicks and Hawks games. I was going to be this upset had it been we both games because superficial wins do not make up for stupidity.

I go so upset in this Knick game that I turned off the TV with about 2 minutes left because I was fed up with the rubbish I was forced to see. To make matters worse veterans like Tracy and JJax should have known better. We went away from what has worked and that which will take us as far as we will go this year and went with ill adviced plays. It is just unfortunate.

That said, JVG is still my man.

 

ummm i agree taht he is not on the same level as kobe BUT he is MUCH better then vince carter. better defender and passer then carter not to mention much better scorer.

 

I think this will come as his career goes on as a Rocket. Remember when Francis was bad lat at games early in his career? He got ALOT better at crunch time as his career progressed. I also don't think Tmac has been in too many pressure situations like this one, hopefully this is part of the process.

 

Its amazing to me that we get a 5 ft jumper by an allstar and can't make it... the knicks get a 30ft prayer and it gets answered...hmmmmm

Kinda creepy

 

All that T-Mac had to do on that last play was shoot a long range three pointer at the end of the shot clock and get rim ... T-Mac can do that any day. Why the hell he chose to drive and shoot well before the shot clock is unbelievable. Sorry but that is a coaching problem .. JVG should have used a time out to MAKE SURE his player knew what the right thing to do was.

 

You know what, now that I thought about it, that is true. We weren't down, we didn't need a bucket. We needed to let the damn time run out. You shoot the ball with one second left on the shot clock and it takes a second to go in or out; Bam-game over. Your right, I don't understand why he drove to the hoop. Crazy...

Hmm....All-stars

I guess he has never been in that situation before. Maybe he was always trying to beat the clock to get a bucket in Orlando. I don't know...all I know is that play cost us the game.

 

So your saying you would rather have a last second heave at the rim from 30 ft. out than a drive and possible score to put the game away? Let's say he did what you proposed and missed. So, the Knicks get the ball with like 1 to 1.5 seconds. They still win as the last inbounds play and shot still didn't take that long. If Tmac had hit that runner off the drive, the Rockets would have won and everyone on this board would be praising his clutch and end of game decisions rather than the opposite. He made the right choice and just short-armed the shot. It happens. The ONLY thing I wish is that he would have started the drive just a second or two later.

 

T-mac played fairly well in this game. But what he has done in the last play is beyond me. There was a 2 seconds differential between the shot clock and the game clock. The Knicks were not trying to foul him. He could have easily dribbled the ball down to 1 sec left then fired it. Even if he missed, the game clock would have run out before the Knicks could run another play. This loss is hard to swallow.

 

Amen, amen, and amen.

It should be plain simple to someone who has been in the league for so many years. But I sure hope the head coach reminded the players the same thing again in that last timeout.

 

T-Mac is a leaner Sam Perkins.

 

it was no way we were suppose to lose this game we were up by 2 with really the last shot .I like macgrady alot ,but that was dumb.

 

When I saw him not chase down Marbury I immediately thought that his injury must be really slowing him down. I can only hope I am right. If not then that play should a lack of desire.

 

Dude, I was so ready to start this thread after the Atlanta game, but I knew I was going to get labeled a hater so I backed off. I posted in the Atlanta game thread that McGrady, while he’s a great mid range shooter, settles to many times for the jump shot especially when his shot isn’t falling and especially in the fourth quarter.

Our new superstar has disappeared twice in a row at the end of close games and I know people think its JVG’s fault, but T-Mac looks like he doesn’t even want the ball in these situations.

 

The guy turns into a completely different player at crunch time, he doesn't look nearly as smooth and the game doesn't look as easy for him. He takes awkward looking shots his release is much quicker, for example, against Atlanta he had a stop and pop 18 footer that was released much too early and on the runner last night he also short armed that attempt. He hardly ever turns the ball over but last night he threw two bad passes that resulted in turnovers, even his defensive lapse on Marbury's fast break lay up showed a lack of concentration. The excuse for these types of things in Orlando was that he was too tired from carrying the team through the first 42 minutes so he couldn't take care of business in the 4th, well what's the excuse now that he has Yao?

I'm worried that this is not a problem he will be able to fix, either you have it from the start or you don't, Jordan had it at North Carolina, Bryant had it before he could legally drink. It has to be Yao time at the end of close games, Tracy has to get us through the first three quarters while keeping Yao fresh and let him finish teams off. Yao's clutch attempts look like shots he would take in the 1st quarter, that is as long as he's not too tired like he was last night, the only thing that seems to affect Yao is fatigue, keep him fresh!

I'm going to go ahead and say it, to me Francis is a better clutch player, sure he might dribble the ball off his foot, or throw it into the third row, or dribble into five guys, or shoot an air ball, but occasionally he'll make the play that will win the game and guess what? He's consistent with his mistakes, the screw ups he might have at the end of close games are the exact same screw ups he'd have in the first quarter.

Just to add a little bit... He needs to show some emotion, I know that it's not his personality to do it but this team needs a leader that will rally them in these times of need, so change! Someone needs to motivate the troops to hold off these types of fourth quarter charges, because if someone can't do it while we're ahead how are they going to do it when we're the ones that are in need of double digit fourth quarter comeback? Could Yao be the one? His English is good enough now-a-days, so speak up Yao!

 

My biggest problem with Tmac is he doesnt get to the FT line enough. I think the analysts last night said he averages around 6 FTs a game. Kobe is getting 14! Tmac needs to get to the line about 10 times each night. Last night he needed to make a more physical drive, ACCEPT contact and get to the line. Of course when he DID get to the line he was 3-6 which is a concern. He loses focus at the line. You can see it.

Tmac has to ACCEPT and EMBRACE contact. He can't shy away from it. The real GOOD players are willing to get down and dirty and get physical late in the game.

Tmac has to do it. He has to be less perimeter oriented and look to drive more and get to the FT line.

 

I couldn't agree more